This invention relates to dough dividers, and in particular to dough dividers with a sealed chamber in which the dough is positioned.
Dough dividers are used extensively for dividing large masses of dough into small, ready to use pieces of dough. Dough dividers are used in the pizza and bakery businesses for evenly dividing the large mass of dough into, for example, an equal number of pizza crusts or loaves of bread.
Heretofore, dough dividers have included machines having sealable chambers, wherein the dough is placed within the chamber and compressed in order to have the dough completely and uniformly fill the chamber and evenly divide the dough. The dough dividers have a lid that closes the top of the chamber and a bottom floor that can rise towards the lid in order to compress the dough between the lid and the floor. After the dough has been compressed, knives are inserted through the floor of the dough divider in order to evenly divide the dough.
A problem with such dough dividers arises if the dough is left in the chamber for an extended period of time. As the dough remains in the chamber, yeast in the dough causes the dough to rise and thereby exerts pressure against the lid of the chamber. Therefore, the chamber will have a large amount of pressure acting against the bottom of the lid. This large amount of pressure acting against the bottom of lid can wedge the locking mechanism of the lid, thereby making the lid very hard to open. Furthermore, when the lid is finally opened, the lid will be forced rapidly and dangerously upward because of the pressure applied to the bottom of the lid.
Accordingly, an apparatus solving the aforementioned disadvantages and having the aforementioned advantages is desired.
One aspect of the present invention is to provide a dough divider including a hopper with a lid and a press plate vertically slidable within the hopper. The hopper is adapted to accept dough between the lid and the press plate, and the press plate is adapted to move towards the lid in order to compress the dough between the press plate and the lid within the hopper. The dough divider further includes a two part pressure relief system including a reversible cylinder assembly and at least one pressure relief opening. The reversible cylinder assembly is connected to the press plate and adapted to move downward in order to allow the press plate to move towards a bottom of the hopper when pressure applied to a top of the press plate from the dough within the hopper reaches a predetermined level. The pressure relief opening is adapted to relieve pressure within the hopper between the press plate and the lid by allowing the dough to escape from the hopper through the pressure relief opening when the press plate has reached the bottom of the hopper.
The dough divider of the present invention is safe and easy to use. The dough divider with pressure relief allows a person to easily divide large masses of dough and remove the dough from the dough divider easily and without injury. The dough divider with pressure relief is efficient in use, economical to manufacture, capable of a long operable life, and particularly adapted for the proposed use.
These and other features, advantages and objects of the present invention will be further understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art by reference to the following specification, claims and appended drawings.